# React-Native-Apps: a curated index of open source React Native and Expo codebases > ReactNativeNews/React-Native-Apps is a pull-request-curated list of open source React Native and Expo apps, maintained by Gant Laborde at Infinite Red. It is a reading list for source code, not a library, and its usefulness depends on how much you trust a table of badges. **ReactNativeNews/React-Native-Apps** — Curated List of Open Source React Native Apps. Curation curtesy of - Repository: https://github.com/ReactNativeNews/React-Native-Apps - Website: https://infinite.red/technologies/react-native - Stars: 10,392 · Forks: 1,394 - Language: Unknown - License: not declared - Published: 2026-09-21 · Updated: 2026-09-21 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/reactnativenews-react-native-apps ## What React-Native-Apps actually is, and who it is for React-Native-Apps is a single README file. The repository has no package manifest, no build, no test suite and no source directory; the top-level entries are README.md alone. The README describes it as "a showcase of _only_ open source React Native and Expo apps" and states that the apps do not have to be published to any store. That sentence sets the scope precisely: the list is about source code you can read, not about products you can install. The audience follows from that. A developer who has built a few screens and now wants to see how a real project lays out navigation, state and native modules gets more from one complete repository than from a tutorial. The same developer searching for a drop-in component will find nothing here. The README also points readers to the React Native Newsletter for news, which is a fair signal that the project positions itself as a directory rather than a tool. Curation is attributed to Gant Laborde, described in the README as co-owner and CIO of Infinite Red. That is a single named maintainer rather than a committee, which matters when you are judging how consistently entries are checked. ## How the list is structured and how entries get in Each row of the README table carries a title linked to a GitHub repository, a prose description, a version badge, a last-commit badge, a stars badge and one or more links. The version badges are not written by hand: they are shields.io dynamic badges that read a dependency version out of the target repository's package.json. For the AI Language Partner entry the badge points at apps/mobile/package.json and reads the expo key; for WallSpace and NetPrime the badge is a static shields.io badge showing a React Native version such as 0.84 or 0.79.4. The last-commit and star badges query GitHub directly. That mechanism has a consequence worth naming. A dynamic badge reflects whatever the target repository's manifest says today, so the version column can change without anyone editing this list. A static badge cannot; it freezes the number that was typed in. Two rows in the same table therefore mean different things, and the README does not explain the difference. Submission is by pull request. The README states that it is "totally okay to add it to the top of this list" and that freshest apps get first place. So ordering is a convention, not a ranking, and the top of the table is the newest arrival rather than the best code. ## Reading the list without installing anything There is nothing to install. The repository is a README, so the first real use is reading it in a browser or cloning it for offline reference. Cloning gives you the table locally, which is useful if you want to grep descriptions or keep a copy while you work through several repositories. ```bash git clone https://github.com/ReactNativeNews/React-Native-Apps.git cd React-Native-Apps ``` After the clone you have a working tree whose only tracked content is README.md. Opening that file in an editor shows the table; the badges render as images on GitHub but appear as markdown image links in a plain editor, so read the surrounding description text rather than the badge syntax. From there, the practical first use is to pick one entry and open its own repository. The README does not provide install instructions for the listed apps, because they are independent projects with their own setup. What you do next is governed by whichever repository you chose. ## The maintenance question the badges do not answer The list repository itself was last pushed on 2026-07-12, so it is current rather than abandoned. But a recent push to this repository says nothing about the health of the projects it links to. The README's own last-commit column is the only signal offered, and it is a badge, not a review. The deeper problem is that inclusion criteria are stated in terms of openness and platform, not quality. The README says apps "do not have to be published to the App Store or anything" and that the goal is to help developers by "seeing how others are building and structuring their applications." Nothing in that sentence promises the code is idiomatic, current or complete. A row can describe a streaming app with a confident one-line pitch while the underlying repository has never been reviewed by the curator beyond a pull request. Treat the table as a candidate list. The version badge is a starting filter: an entry pinned at an old React Native release tells you the code predates recent APIs, and reading it will teach you patterns that may no longer be recommended. That is a limitation of the directory, not a defect in it, but it is the limitation that decides whether a given row is worth your afternoon. ## What a template or a component library would give you instead The obvious alternative is a React Native starter template or a UI component library. The difference is not quality, it is the shape of the artifact. A template scaffolds a working project you can run immediately and then modify; a component library gives you screens and primitives with documented props. Both impose structure on your code from the start. React-Native-Apps does the opposite. It imposes nothing and runs nothing. You get pointers to finished applications, each with its own architecture, its own dependency choices and its own conventions. If you want to compare three approaches to navigation in real codebases, that variety is the point. If you want to ship a screen this week, the same variety is friction, because every entry requires you to read and adapt rather than import. A second alternative is simply searching GitHub for React Native topics yourself. That gives you far more results and no curation at all. The value this list adds is the constraint: open source, React Native or Expo, and a description written by the submitter. Whether that constraint is worth more than an unfiltered search is a judgement about how much you trust a single maintainer's pull-request queue. ## Licence, maintenance and the cost of depending on it The repository metadata does not state a licence. That is a real gap if you intend to reuse anything, and it is worth separating two things. The list's own content is a README; the code it links to lives in other repositories under their own licences, which this project does not record. Checking the licence of an entry means opening that entry. Nothing here grants you rights to the listed applications. Upgrade cost is close to zero in the conventional sense, because there is no dependency to upgrade. The ongoing cost is attention: entries accumulate, version badges drift, and the only maintenance mechanism described is pull requests from the community plus whatever the curator does by hand. If you rely on the list as a reference, you are relying on contributors continuing to submit and on the curator continuing to merge. The absence of releases is consistent with that. There is no versioned artifact to pin, no changelog to follow, and no upgrade path to plan. You either read the current README or you do not. ## Conclusion Adopt React-Native-Apps if you learn by reading complete app codebases and want a starting point that is already filtered to open source React Native and Expo projects. Do not adopt it if you need a maintained library, a template you can scaffold from, or any guarantee about the code behind each link. Before you rely on an entry, open its repository, check which React Native or Expo version the badge reports, and read the last commit date; the list itself does not verify either. ## FAQ ### What is React-Native-Apps? It is a curated list of open source React Native and Expo applications, kept as a single README table. Each row links to a repository and gives a description, a version badge, a last-commit badge and a stars badge. ### How do I get an app added to the React-Native-Apps list? The README asks you to submit a pull request, and states that adding your project to the top of the list is fine because freshest apps get first place. ### Does React-Native-Apps contain install instructions for the listed apps? No. The repository holds only README.md, and the listed applications are independent projects with their own repositories and setup. The list provides links, not installation steps. ### How current is the React-Native-Apps list? The repository's last push was on 2026-07-12. Individual entries carry their own last-commit badges, so the freshness of a row depends on the project it links to rather than on the list itself. ### Is React-Native-Apps a template or a component library? Neither. The README describes it as a showcase of open source React Native and Expo apps, intended to help developers see how others build and structure their applications. It contains no runnable code of its own. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/ReactNativeNews/React-Native-Apps/issues) - [Project website](https://infinite.red/technologies/react-native) - [ReactNativeNews/React-Native-Apps on GitHub](https://github.com/ReactNativeNews/React-Native-Apps) - [README](https://github.com/ReactNativeNews/React-Native-Apps/blob/master/README.md) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/reactnativenews-react-native-apps